Toronto Maple Leafs
On February 9, 2011, nearing the end of his second season back with Anaheim, but having played only 49 games during his second stint, Lupul was traded (alongside Jake Gardiner and a conditional draft pick in 2013) to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for François Beauchemin, marking the third time Lupul had been involved in a trade with the Ducks organization. [7] Originally, the deal excluded Lupul, however he was included as a salary dump to keep the Ducks under the salary cap. [8] [9] After being traded to Toronto, he made the transition from right to left wing and finished with 18 points in 28 games to finish the 2010–11 season.
The following year, 2011–12, Lupul began the year on the opposite wing of Phil Kessel, putting together a strong first half of the season that led to his invitation to the 2012 NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa as an alternate captain to Zdeno Chára. There, he scored two goals for Team Chara in a 12–9 win over Team Alfredsson. On March 2, 2012, Toronto fired its head coach, Ron Wilson, and replaced him with Randy Carlyle, Lupul's former head coach in Anaheim. Lupul suffered a severe shoulder separation on March 6 that necessitated immediate season-ending surgery. Nonetheless, he finished with a career-high of 67 points on the year despite playing in just 66 games, marking the first time in his NHL career he scored at least a point-per-game pace. [10] At the end of the season, Lupul was a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy—awarded annually to the NHL player best exemplifying qualities in perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey—which was ultimately awarded to Max Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens. [11]
During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Lupul played for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)'s Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in Yekaterinburg, Russia. After the lockout was resolved and just prior to the start of the truncated 2012–13 season, Lupul, along with teammate Clarke MacArthur, was named an alternate captain of the Maple Leafs under captain Dion Phaneuf. Days later, on January 20, 2013, Lupul signed a five-year, US$26.25 million contract extension with Toronto. [12] Only three games into the season, Lupul fractured his right forearm when he was hit by a Phaneuf slapshot while screening opposing goaltender Marc-André Fleury in a game against Pittsburgh. [13] Lupul subsequently missed 25 games. In his return to the ice on March 16, he scored on his first shift of the night and once again in the second period of the game. [14] However, the Maple Leafs went on to lose the game in a ten-round shootout to the Winnipeg Jets. Rejuvenated in his return after a long absence, Lupul scored goals in six consecutive games and recorded points in a prolific rate—eight goals and six assists in six games—before he suffered another injury in a game against his former club, the Flyers. While chasing the puck deep in his own zone, Lupul was hit by two Flyers simultaneously, one of which accidentally contacted his head, resulting in a concussion. He would miss an additional two weeks before making his return on April 16 against Washington. Lupul finished the season with totals of 18 points in 16 games.
With 57 points gained in 48 games, the Maple Leafs qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2004. During Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Boston Bruins, Lupul scored two goals to help propel the Leafs to a 4–2 win and even the series at one game apiece. He would score again in Game 4 at the Air Canada Centre when he scored the game's opener, though Toronto would eventually lose in overtime, 4–3. Lupul ended his first playoff series with Toronto with three goals and one assist in seven games as the team fell 5–4 in overtime of Game 7.
On November 14, 2015, Lupul scored his 200th career goal during a 4–2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. [15] On December 1, 2015, Lupul was placed on injured reserve after suffering a lower body injury. [16] Lupul returned but was again injured in February, and was shut down for the season to have surgery. [17] Facing a decline in offensive production and a growing reputation as an injury-prone player (having missed 40% of the Maple Leafs' games over the past four seasons due to injury), [17] Rumours began to circulate as early as February 2016 that there was concern if Lupul could continue to play at the NHL level anymore. With two more years on his contract paying him $5.25 million annually, there was speculation Toronto management was planning to sideline the winger under the Injury Reserve for the duration of his contract, similarly to what was happening with teammate Stéphane Robidas following the 2014–15 season. [18] At the end of the season, Lupul was not seen at the year-end locker room clean-out or media briefings.
Despite comments from Lupul earlier in the season and teammate Nazem Kadri in the summer implying Lupul wanted to and had the ability to play the following season, he did not participate in pre-season action, and he announced on September 22, 2016, he would sit out the upcoming season due to injury. [17] He was subsequently placed on the long-term injury reserve, with the team stating he had failed his pre-season physical. [17] By mid-February 2017, media reports indicated Lupul had played his final professional hockey game, and that he had been out of contact with the media and one of his agents for months. [19] Lupul was left unprotected by the Maple Leafs in the 2017 Expansion Draft and was thus eligible to be selected by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, although players who were injured for more than one year and were not expected to play again were exempt in the draft under NHL rules, signalling that Lupul may not be injured in the traditional sense. [20] In September 2017, the Leafs declared Lupul had failed his physicals at training camp before the 2017–18 season. Lupul then made several posts on his Instagram account saying he was healthy and accused the Maple Leafs of cheating by designating him injured so his salary could not count against the salary cap. [21] These accusations prompted the NHL to administer a second physical by an independent doctor, which he subsequently failed and confirmed the Maple Leafs' initial claim he was unfit to play. [22]
